French-Spanish war (1635–1659)-Wikipedia

The French-Spanish war (1635–1659) For the most part, the kingdoms of Spain and France took place parallel to other major conflicts, especially the Thirty Years ‘War and the Eighty Years’ War. It was ended by the Pyrenees peace of 1659. The age of Spain and the age of the dominance of France in Europe also began in Europe.

In 1618, the Thirty Years’ War broke out in Central Europe, which began as a religious war in the first phase. In this phase of the war, the Catholic side with the Catholic League and the Austrian line of the Habsburg monarchy was successful, which was supported by the members of the Line of the Spanish Habsburg. This alliance, led by the generals Tilly and Wallenstein, was able to defeat the Protestant German Reich prince. The King Christian IV of Denmark Norway, which intervened on the part of the Protestants, was also beaten militarily. From 1630, the conflict with the intervention of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden on the part of the Protestants. The Swedes were initially able to achieve great military successes against the imperial troops, including Spanish quotas, and penetrated to southern Germany. In 1634, however, the Swedish armies were beaten in the fight for Regensburg and in the Battle of Nördlingen. Afterwards there was a compromise between the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II in 1635 and some Protestant imperial princes with the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I as its leader. The Swedes continued the war, supported by the rest of the Protestant Reich prince and France.

Similar to French armies, Spanish armies were still involved in two other European theaters.
In 1628 Spanish troops intervened in the Mantuanian War of Succession, which had burned down after extinction of the main line of the Princely Gonzaga. French troops stood on the opposite side. In addition, after the ceasefire expired in 1621, the war with the General States (the “Eighty Year War”) was flamed again. The course of the war was initially favorable for Spain. The Spanish military leader Ambrosio Spinola was able to conquer Breda in 1625 and the Spanish Admiral Fadrique de Toledo destroyed a Dutch fleet near Gibraltar in the same year. However, the Dutch were supported by French subsidies and the Dutch Caper War led to a significant impairment of Spain. In 1627 the Dutch Admiral Piet Pieterszoon Heyn managed to inspire a large Spanish silver fleet in the waters around Cuba. After that, the Dutch were increasingly able to pass to the offensive and achieved success in the Spanish Netherlands.

After the Prague Peace between Emperor Ferdinand II and the Catholic League on one side and Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony on the other, to which almost all Protestant imperial estates joined, peace in Central Europe seemed within reach. With his declaration of war on May 19, 1635, as the allies of the emperor, France, however, entered war at the instigation of the ruling Minister Cardinal Richelieu, as a war participant on Sweden. The official reason for this in March had delivered the hand -string -like conquest of Trier by Spanish troops, which was horrified by French troops in 1632. Elector of Sötern was detained that France’s release of his ally had been refused. From Sötern, only in April 1645 came back to freedom. ^[first]

French armies entered the Spanish Netherlands and the Burgundy, who was under Spanish rule. In the Battle of Les Avins 1635, the French were victorious. In return, the Spanish and imperial armies under the command of the cardinal infant Don Fernando and the riding general Jan von Werth from the Spanish Netherlands from campaigns to the north of France and temporarily threatened the capital Paris. The policy of the senior Spanish minister Olivares, which aimed at a stronger centralization of Spain, limiting the traditional self -administration rights of the individual, the high control pressure and the economic crisis due to the many wars led to inner uprisings in Spain. In 1640 there was an open uprising of the Catalan counties against the central government in Madrid. There was a “uprising of the Schnitter”, the Spanish vice king in Barcelona was killed and an assembly declared the split off of the Principality of Catalonia from the Spanish monarchy and proclaimed Louis XIII. From France to the sovereign in Catalonia. In the same year there was also Portugal’s survey and split off, which had been united with the Spanish crown in personal union since the extinction of the Portuguese royal family in 1580. The uprising in Catalonia was brought back to control after years of fighting, but Portugal was permanently lost for the Spanish Empire together with his colonial kingdom.

In 1643 the Spaniards in the Battle of Rocroi suffered the most devastating defeat of the war against the French. When the French exceeded the Rhine under TuRenne in 1646 and in Bavaria, the land connection between the Spanish possessions in Italy and the Spanish-Burgundian possessions was finally cut. An uprising broken out in 1647 in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily under Spanish rule could be brought back under control.

Due to the intolerable war loads, Spanish politics had sought peace negotiations from 1640. In 1646 there was a peace conclusion with the northern Netherlands, which ended the Eighty Years’ War. The peace negotiations in Münster and Osnabrück, which had been running since 1643, came to an end in 1648 (Westphalian peace). The state of war with France, however, continued because Spain refused to meet the French demand for a assignment of all of Catalonia. In the Battle of Lens 1648, the French were again victorious. From 1648 to 1653, however, Spain received a breath because France was weakened by inner unrest, especially the nobility uprising of the Fronde. After 1653 the war broke open again and after 1655 England also entered war under Oliver Cromwell on the side of France.

After the French had also been victorious in the battle in the dunes in 1658, the state of war finally ended with the Pyrenees peace completed on November 7, 1659. In it, Spain north of the Pyrenees – the county of Roussillon and the northern half of the Cerdanya – descended to France. France also received territorial concessions in the Spanish Netherlands and in Italy. In return, France ended his support for Portugal in the Restoration War. The state of war between Spain and England was only ended two years later.

• W. L. Bernecker, H. Pietschmann: History of Spain. 2nd ed., Kohlhammer Stuttgart [u. a.] 1997, ISBN 3-17-014226-7.
• H.-O. Sieburg: History of France. 5. Erw. Ed., Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1995, ISBN 3-17-013664-X.